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Eclipse chasers are so excited about solar eclipses that they rarely miss these celestial events, even if they have to travel around the world to see them. But the coronavirus outbreak has halted his plans for the only total solar eclipse of the year.
On Monday (December 14), the 2020 total solar eclipse will sweep across the Southern Cone of South America, through Chile and Argentina, turning the day into twilight for up to 2 minutes and 10 seconds as the moon passes in front of the Sun. A partial eclipse will be visible across the entire continent, as well as parts of southwestern Africa.
But even as some countries around the world have begun to ease certain travel restrictions that were created to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, nations like Chile have created new lockdowns as they experience a further increase in cases. Meanwhile, Argentina is beginning to relax its travel restrictions, but its borders remain closed to tourists from non-neighboring countries.
Video: Total solar eclipse in December 2020: where is it visible?
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“I’ve been to every continent to see solar eclipses, even Antarctica,” Fred Espenak, a retired NASA astrophysicist and eclipse hunter, told Space.com in an interview. Espenak, also known as “Mr. Eclipse,” ran eclipse prediction models during his time at NASA, and currently manages the EclipseWise.com and MrEclipse.com websites. He said he has traveled to see more than 40 solar eclipses, including total, partial and annular eclipses.
“I’ve made a lot of friends since the eclipses and I met my wife on an eclipse journey,” he said. They met on a solar eclipse tour in northern India in 1995. Since then they have traveled together to see many eclipses and went together to Chile on a guided tour for the December 14 event. He withdrew from the trip in October when it became clear to him that a COVID-19 vaccine would not be available by December. The trip was officially canceled this week when Chile announced new pandemic restrictions amid a recent spike in cases.
Instead of traveling, Espenak will join a video call with other eclipse chasers as a community event to watch the eclipse together and hear each other’s comments, he said.
Video: Dramatic drone video captures the magic of the total solar eclipse
Eclipses have a certain influence on many people.
One reason people follow eclipses is because each event is unique, in terms of duration, location, and appearance. “From one eclipse to the next, the corona is dramatically different,” Espenak said. The corona, or the dim (and scorching) halo of the sun, is the only part of the sun that is visible during an eclipse.
An astronomer compared total solar eclipses to the Mona Lisa painting.
“One of the analogies I use is, if you are a Leonardo di Vinci lover and you really loved gazing at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, how would you feel if you only had the opportunity to look at the Mona Lisa for two minutes every two years? “Glenn Schneider, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, told Space.com. “And some years, when you travel to Paris to see it, it may be cloudy that day and you can’t see the Mona Lisa.”
Schneider, who said he has seen 35 total solar eclipses, said he has taken the opportunity to study eclipses for scientific reasons but does not pursue them for professional reasons. “I pursue them because they are the most aesthetically wonderful thing you can experience.”
Schneider was unable to travel due to personal risks from COVID-19.
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Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College in Massachusetts, is another eclipse chaser who was unable to travel for the solar eclipse on December 14. At 77, it was not recommended that he go to airports, he told Space.com in an email. Pasachoff “will remain safe to see the total eclipse next year and those that follow,” he added.
This is only the second total eclipse since 1970 that Pasachoff has missed, and he has seen about 35 of them, he said. Pasachoff had planned to travel to Chile with several other researchers and filmmakers, and some were able to travel to Chile, he wrote.
Those in Chile will be taking images of the eclipse and Pasachoff plans to use the images to observe Baily’s Beads. An experiment he had planned for this eclipse, the coronal oscillation experiment and its six suitcases of equipment, had to be left in Massachusetts “because neither my colleague at MIT nor I can go [to Chile] for COVID reasons, “he wrote.
Some of the work that Pasachoff and others can do in Chile will be facilitated by a local astronomer named Thomas Puzia, a professor at the Institute of Astrophysics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
The International Astronomical Union has created a list of solar eclipse events and live broadcasts for the public. You can also watch the eclipse live here on Space.com.
Follow Doris Elin Urrutia on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
